MUMBAI: Last October, Aishwarya Bachchan grappled with a tough choice. The Bollywood star could either stay in Los Angeles to pursue a lead role in Will Smith's new film, "Seven Pounds," or she could return home to Mumbai to celebrate Karva Chauth, a daylong ceremonial fast that some married Hindu women observe as a prayer for their husband's health and long life. (The observance is a new one for Bachchan; in April she married Abhishek Bachchan, an actor and the son of the Indian film star Amitabh Bachchan, a union that prompted Time magazine to describe the three as "Bollywood's Father, Son and Holy Babe.")

Ultimately Bachchan chose to return to Mumbai and starve with a smile. National television channels covered her first Karva Chauth as headline news. Two months later she shrugged off her loss in an interview. "You do what you have to do," she said. "Feeling torn and thereby unhappy, confused or guilty is not something I want to feel. So you make your choices and go with it. You get some and some you don't."

This month Bachchan (whose maiden name is Rai), 34, brings some of that clarity and traditionalism to a role she was born to play: that of Queen Jodhaa in the sumptuous-looking historical drama "Jodhaa Akbar." The $10 million film is one of Bollywood's biggest productions this year. It will be released worldwide on Friday, in more than 115 theaters in the United States alone, making it the biggest American release ever for a Hindi film.

"Jodhaa Akbar" focuses on that quintessentially Indian subject: arranged marriage. Set in the 16th century, it explores the marriage between the great Mughal Emperor Akbar, a Muslim, and his Hindu wife Jodhaa.

Historians have described the union as a political alliance, but in the hands of Ashutosh Gowariker, the film's director, the story has become "an epic romance with its share of battles, harem politics and intrigue," he said in a telephone interview. Gowariker, whose 2001 period film, "Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India," was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign film, isn't claiming factual accuracy but insists that the film is "embedded in historical truth."
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He cast Bachchan as the queen (a figure some Indian historians dispute ever existed) because, he said, "Aishwarya is a comic book princess with a certain dignity, elegance and sense of purity." For the role of Akbar, Gowariker wanted someone with "the physique of a warrior and the face of a romantic," and selected another Bollywood superstar, Hrithik Roshan.

Gowariker described it as a dream cast, which, at least as far as box office appeal goes, seems accurate. Both actors, to steal the phrase Pauline Kael invented to describe Michelle Pfeiffer, are "paradisically beautiful," and are consummate superstars. With their ethnically indeterminate looks and impeccable English, Bachchan and Roshan could be India's first international movie stars.

Bachchan has already made considerable progress in that direction. She is the international face of L'Oréal and Longines, as well as a consistently glamorous presence at the Cannes Film Festival; in 2003 she became the first Bollywood actress to serve on the jury. In 2004 she made Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

So far Bachchan's international projects - "Bride & Prejudice," "The Mistress of Spices" and "The Last Legion" - have sputtered commercially and critically, but with her high-profile marriage, A-list brand endorsements and plum Hindi film projects, she continues to generate global attention.

Smith, who wanted to cast her in "Hitch," but couldn't, because of scheduling conflicts, remains an ardent admirer. "She has this powerful energy where she doesn't have to say anything, do anything, she can just stand there," he said in a February 2006 interview with BBC News.

Next February Bachchan will be seen in "Pink Panther 2," in which Inspector Clouseau, played by Steve Martin, teams up with a squad of international detectives to catch a thief with a penchant for historical artifacts.

As it happens, her "Jodhaa Akbar" co-star, Roshan, 33, rejected a role in the same film because it wasn't important enough.

In an interview in Mumbai, Roshan made it clear that while he is "actively pursuing Hollywood" he would not "do a film just because it's Hollywood."

Hollywood and Roshan have been flirting with each other since he burst into Bollywood with a film called "Kaho Na Pyar Hai" ("Say You Love Me") in 2000. The film, directed and produced by his father, Rakesh Roshan, was a blockbuster and catapulted the newcomer to superstar status in India.